Report: PGA Tour To Unveil Four New Elevated Events

The PGA Tour unveiled some huge prize money increases ahead of the 2022/23 season as it looks to counter the threat from LIV Golf.

Now, according to a Golfweek report, the Tour is expected to reveal four more tournaments with elevated status for 2023, bringing the total to 13 carrying a minimum $20 prize money. While discussions are reportedly ongoing, it is expected that the PGA Tour will inform players later this week that the WM Phoenix Open, the RBC Heritage, the Wells Fargo Championship and the Travelers Championship will receive the upgraded status.

It is also reported that while the nine confirmed elevated tournaments, including the Genesis Invitational and the Memorial Tournament, will have the status each year, the four additional ones will rotate the status on a year-by-year basis from 2024 as the Tour aims to tempt sponsors to fund the elevated status for each event and attract the strongest field possible every few years. One Golfweek source said: “The elevated events won’t be the same in 2024. These events worked with a schedule that had already been announced.”

The decision is thought to have been inspired by a player-only meeting headed by Tiger Woods before August’s BMW Championship. Following that meeting, one of the attendees, Rory McIlroy, said:  "We need to get the top guys together more often than we do. I'm talking about all in the same tournaments, all in the same weeks.” 

The addition of further elevated tournaments would certainly achieve that, particularly as there was reportedly an agreement in that meeting that the top players would commit to participating in each elevated event. Meanwhile, under the PGA Tour's plans, players are also obliged to participe in at least three non-elevated tournaments every season. 

It would also mean tournaments with elevated status would be played regularly between January and August, beginning with the Sentry Tour of Champions. After that, the WM Phoenix Open and Genesis Invitational are scheduled for February, with the Bay Hill Invitational, Players Championship and WGC-Match Play in March. 

Following those, the RBC Heritage is scheduled for April with the Wells Fargo Championship the month after. June has the Memorial Tournament and Travelers Championship, while the three elevated FedEx Cup tournaments come in August. As well as those, there are also the four Majors in April, May, June and July, ensuring the most of the world’s top players will come together regularly to compete. 

LIV Golf has plans of its own, of course, and intends to expand from this year’s eight-tournament Series to a 14-tournament League in 2023. Whether the PGA Tour’s changes will be enough to persuade its best players to stay loyal to it remains to be seen. However, with minimum purses far closer to the $25m on offer in each of LIV Golf's seven regular tournaments of its inaugural season, commissioner Jay Monahan will be hopeful of doing just that.